Opinion

Bas Nicholl called me last week. The longtime assistant trainer for D. Wayne Lukas has called me twice before. Once, Nicholl called to thank me for leading the Travers feature with Will Take Charge and him and once when we misquoted Nicholl in Here & There. One out of two ain’t bad.

George Handy decided to go for bigger things, closing his stable at Lincoln Downs in Rhode Island to try his hand at Liberty Bell Racetrack in Philadelphia. It was 1970. Handy’s assistant, Ned Allard, figured he better leave too. Without a job and with just a $1,500 claimer, Handy allowed him to train on the side, Allard began to make plans to hit the road. But, Fleetness Rules was ready to run, the owner wanted to run, Allard got talked into staying to run him, just once. 

Today is the Fourstardave Stakes, run in the memory of the New York-bred gelding who won a race at Saratoga for eight consecutive seasons from 1987 to 1994. Friday evening, Richard Migliore talked about his memories of Fourstardave’s magical run. We turned up the TV and listened to the jockey who can tell stories better than Tolkien. Migliore got me thinking about my memories of Fourstardave, when I galloped horses for Leo O’Brien and his family. 

Dennis Lynch doesn’t know where he’ll watch. He doesn’t know whether he’ll sit or stand or pace as Hip 68 sells tonight. Maybe he’ll surround himself with a couple of close friends or maybe he’ll drift off by himself, somewhere in the crowd, perhaps back in the trees, lost in his thoughts, lost in his emotions. The co-breeder of the Into Mischief filly knows what he’ll be thinking, knows who he’ll be thinking about as the bay filly with the cyclone blaze walks into the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion tonight.

Originally published in The Saratoga Special August 5, 2018.

Saturday afternoon, over about two hours, through the rain, the sun and even a rainbow, I saw all of Rick Violette’s life – all that he represents, all that he is about, all that he has built.

Wayne Catalano stood still for a moment. The 62-year-old trainer leaned against the outside rail, waiting for his big horse, Farrell, to complete a circuit of the main track the day before she won the Shuvee at Saratoga. This is the only way Catalano pauses, when his horse is on the other side of the infield lake and there’s nothing else to do but wait for her.

A few readers have told us that they save up The Specials all summer, then pull them out and read them one by one in the dead of a Saratoga winter. 

We’re proud of Quint Kessenich, Pete Fornatale, Frank Scatoni, Jim Mulvihill, Travis Stone, John Lies, Liz Ronk, John Panagot, Brian Nadeau, Joanie Morris, Katie Bo Williams, Gabby Gaudet, Kristin Brennan, Madison Scott, Michael Smith, Annise Montplaisir and all the former interns. They got up early, stayed late, made The Special their own before finding their own niches, some in our sport, all in life. I know we’ll be proud of the 2018 class.